Varlamov, Landeskog, MacKinnon, Boedker named to World Cup of Hockey rosters

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Slumping Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was pulled after the first period of Colorado’s 6-3 loss to Minnesota Tuesday night, overnight (or Wednesday in his homeland) was named one of the three goalies on Russia’s preliminary 16-man roster for the World Cup of Hockey Sept. 17-Oct. 1 in Toronto.

Russia’s other two goalies are Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Bluejackets and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bobrovsky and Varlamov divided the work for Russia and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

UPDATED: Later in the day, Nathan MacKinnon was named to Team North America, made up of NHL players 23 or under when the tournament is played; Gabe Landeskog was selected for Sweden’s roster; and Mikkel Boedker (from Denmark) was on the Europe squad, which includes European players from nations without a team in the tournament.

The major players on the outside looking in after the preliminary selections are Matt Duchene, who played for Canada’s Olympic gold-medal team in 2014 and the World Championships gold-medal team last year; and Erik Johnson, a surprising omission from the 2014 U.S. Olympic team.

Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @tfrei

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Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.